It is necessary for a motor vehicle mirror to hinge either forwardly or rearwardly if attached to the exterior of a vehicle, for safety reasons, and such a facility is mandatory in some countries.
This invention is applicable to a "break-away" mirror assembly of the type having a mounting base, a pivoted assembly pivoted thereto to allow displacement of the pivoted assembly both forwardly and rearwardly, a mirror backing plate, swivel mounting means mounting the mirror backing plate within the pivoted assembly, a mirror carried by the mirror backing plate, a tilt control lever pivoted with respect to the mounting base and having an outer end so engaging track surfaces fixed with respect to the mirror backing plate that manipulation of the lever can tilt the backing plate.
Reference can be made to the Australian Patent Application 15542/88 entitled "Breakaway Mirror Spring Means", being a former application of the applicant herein. In that application, a break-away rear vision mirror assembly of the above type was claimed, and was primarily characterised by walls of a spring track of general "U" shape and a spring contained within the spring track, the spring having two ends extending from the spring track and coupled to the mounting base, and an intermediate portion bearing against the spring track walls to return the pivoted assembly to a useable position after the displacement either forwardly or rearwardly.
In order to effect adjustment laterally and vertically of the mirror, the tilt control lever extended into the pivoted assembly of the mirror and terminated at its outer end in a "T" head which engaged walls of a channel track. Upon break-away occurring, the "T" head would remain in the channel track so that after break-away had occurred, the elongate spring would return the pivoted assembly to its normal position, with the "T" head in position.
In most instances the arrangement described and claimed in that application is suitable without modification. However vehicles vary and there are some vehicles wherein it is not feasible for the channel track to be of sufficient length to retain the "T" head for full break-away of the pivoted assembly in both directions, and re-insertion is sometimes difficult to achieve by a person who is not familiar with the details of construction.
The main object of this invention is to provide an improvement for the break-away mirror reset for those instances wherein the outer end of a tilt control lever necessarily leaves a channel track of a pivoted assembly of a break-away mirror, upon full break-away occurring.